The men’s soccer team (9-2-2 overall, 3-1-1 Big Ten) defeated conference opponent the Penn State Nittany Lions (10-2-1 overall, 4-2-0 Big Ten) 2-0 on Saturday night at Jeffery Field in Pennsylvania.
The Spartans continued their offensive hot streak on Saturday night. After scoring only seven goals through the team’s first eight games, MSU has now scored 11 goals in the team's last five games.
MSU had only scored multiple goals in one game through the first eight and has now scored multiple goals in four of their last five.
The Spartans got it going at the 20:43 mark with a goal by junior midfielder Jason Stacy with an assist from sophomore midfielder Dewey Lewis.
The goal by Stacy has added to his already impressive week. In last week's 4-0 win over Western Michigan (6-4-3 overall, 0-0-1 MAC) on Oct. 15, Stacy had a goal and three assists for a five point night. Stacy, who already led the team in total points with 12, added two more against Penn State, giving Stacy 14 points on the season with four goals and six assists.
Less than five minutes later at the 25:19 mark, junior midfielder Jay Chapman put MSU ahead 2-0 with a goal on an assist by senior forward Adam Montague, Chapman’s second in as many games.
The two goals in the first half were all the Spartans needed against Penn State as the stingy MSU defense shut the Nittany Lions out. After not losing a game through the team’s first 11, Penn State has now dropped it’s last two, both to conference opponents with the other loss coming to Maryland (6-5-2 overall, 2-2-1 Big Ten) on Oct. 12.
The shutout, the Spartan's 10th in 13 games, gave junior goalkeeper Zach Bennett his 26th career shutout adding to his already impressive school record. The win was the team’s fourth straight.
The next game on the schedule for MSU is Oakland (6-5-1 overall, 5-0-1 Horizon) on Wednesday, Oct. 22 at 7 p.m. The Grizzlies will come into the game having won six straight.
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